For better or worse, there is an interesting discussion happening on a few China-related blogs these days. A discussion turned into an argument turned into something else altogether. I really enjoy the sites of all parties involved, and I hope everybody manages to keep a level head and not get too carried away.

In a nutshell, the debate is over SEO. Should we adjust our writing, our keywords, our urls — should we make our content more “googlable” so that we might draw in more traffic?

Mark of Toshuo thinks no. While I’ve only just recenty started reading his blog, I guarantee you that Mark will get traffic even if he pays no attention to SEO. He does some really cool work, such as the pinyin tone tool which I use quite often, which would draw traffic even if there was no other content onsite.

Putting the SEO Cart before the Horse

Though I have tried my best to optimize my site for SEO, I do think that putting disproportionate focus on SEO instead of content will most certainly get you in trouble. Your content is everything. What is the point of marketing something that essentially isn’t even worth marketing? Write first. Great content will market itself.

Does your Voice have Value?

If your blog is an online journal, than obviously you don’t care about marketing because these are just your personal writings. In that case, SEO is likely something you don’t need. However, if you are trying to get a message across to readers - if you have a message of some value, which you hope to give to others - then yes, you might want to pay some attention to SEO.

I use only one tool for SEO

That tool is the Wordpress Ultimate Tag Warrior Plugin. There. Go get it, and use it. However, I think there are many things far more valuable than SEO, most notably (as I’ve said) good content. But once you have that covered, then focus on the marketing aspect, if your goal is indeed reaching a wider audience.

Build a readership base

You can get as many google hits as you want, but if a reader doesn’t like what he sees, he’s not coming back to your page. But assuming he does like what you’ve written, you should provide a path for him to return. Using a Feedburner RSS feed you can set up a email subcription box as I have in the top right of my site. I have a modest readership, but it has been steadily climbing since I re-launched back in February. I don’t credit that to any SEO miracles. It’s simply because of more frequent, and more deliberate, thought-out posting.

At least, I like to think so.

Oh yeah, and for those of you who came for the headline, here is that AMAZING YOUNG ASIAN KITTY, as promised.

UPDATE: Typo Report
Uh oh. Looks like I made a typo in the headline, and actually typed “Amazing Young Asian Titty” instead of “Amazing Young Asian Kitty”.
Sorry about that. How embarrassing…
Please accept my most sincere apology:
Amazing young asian titty

China Stolen-Media-of-the-Day: Leon / The Professional

Arrrr… I’m a pirate!And continuing the now two-month old tradition of posting pirated media at the end of every post, here’s Leon / The Professional.

Luc Besson and Jean Reno are always a good combination. Courtesy of tudou.

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